Household budget help

[Natedogg]

I was just wondering what your budget advice would be in this situation.

I've recently gone freelance after a years maternity (was previously in a staff position and took redundancy). My plan is to pay off half our mortgage with my redundancy and an Isa. This would reduce our payments to a level where my partner could pay the whole amount, taking the pressure off me.

However, we naturally still have a lot of other monthly expenses. Childcare (wah! So much) council tax, gas / electric etc. My partner has offered to pay the whole lot whilst I get myself established, but I have a couple of issues with this.

1. That would leave him hardly any money at the end of each month
2. I want to feel like I'm pulling my weight

I'm just wondering what the best way to divide our expenses is? The mortgage will actually end up being the cheapest monthly outgoing, once all other bills are added up.

I'm finding it hard to work out the best approach since I really don't know how much I might earn each month.

Any help greatly appreciated!

I think advising how to split bills won't really work when you don't know how much you'd be earning each month. Can't you just put everything in one pot and take everything from that? Surely that seems the obvious solution.

You are a family unit, you pool your resources and the costs!!!

You may need to carefully budget for food, clothes etc. until you bring an income in.

Is the house in both of your names?

You're probably right! I just so used to us just splitting everything 50/50 but my putting a standing order into joint account to cover Bills/mortgage etc.

So do you think best to put everything into a joint account? Sorry if this seems bleeding obvious!

Sorry for the horrible typos, phone's on the blink.

I found ynab worked really well for joint finances. It makes it all technically one pot no matter whose money it is or what account it's in. That might work well for you. It's transformed the way we think about and handle our joint finances

If you are in the UK and not married I would not be paying the mortgage off until you had a watertight agreement drawn up by a solicitor stating this fact and what would happen in the event of a split.

I agree that you are financially vulnerable as you are not married.

If your name isn't on the deeds of the house I would not be paying anything off!

We're both on the mortgage and already have an agreement in place about what would happen if we split up, but yes important point!

Should that agreement change if you are going to pay off half the mortgage at this point, how many years would your dp be paying it to make up the difference???

TBH aside the mortgage the other costs are just day to day living costs and in partnership you should share them as best as you are able, him supporting you now means he will benefit in the future and so on. So just have a shared account, each of you have equal free spending of an agreed amount for week for hobbies, going out, clothes etc. everything else gets paid.

Thank you for all the advice! I'll look into the best ways to pool our resources and budget accordingly, as well as redrawing the agreement.